The present invention relates generally to a system for the illiterate, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a system, method, and recording medium that enables illiterate people to interact with computer and internet services, for the purpose of increased engagement via creating and receiving worthy information to/from their community.
Conventional techniques for the illiterate include icon pictures that are detailed enough that they do not need text to be understood. Further, the icons in the conventional technique do not require that they be clicked to be selected, rather they select on cursor hover. When an icon is hovered over, it increases in size to make it easier for a user to select it. The interface has a help function that provides a voice that tells the function of an icon when the icon is “moused” over or otherwise tentatively chosen by a user.
Other conventional techniques consider a means for training users of computing systems to improve the efficiency of computer interactions by comparing trainee's actions with actions by other users performing similar tasks, and informing said trainee of said other users' more efficient techniques.
However, there are technical problems in the conventional techniques that the conventional techniques can improve efficiency of a system but does not consider how to find the most appropriate interface, by adapting the interface on an individual basis, to be operated by illiterates through understandable knowledge representation that is learned from user interaction with the system. Also, the conventional techniques are deficient in that the conventional techniques design a single icon without considering significantly more of at least a framework that could be used by illiterates to giving and getting services to their community through computer and internet.
That is, the inventors have recognized that there is a problem that illiterate people, no matter what their native country, cannot get access to basic necessities in society such as knowing the cost of products they produce, understanding debt, reporting crime, etc. Accordingly, the inventors have recognized that providing an adaptive interface having picture icons associated with each type of necessity such that the users can recognize can increase the likelihood that even illiterate people can function within a society. In other words, the adaptive interface represents each function in society using, for example, an icon having a pictorial representation for that function and then the sub-display interface pictorially displays to the user the type of function in several different ways. Thus, by having a database with a plurality of different interface designs and pictorial representations for each icon (i.e., multiple pictures representation the same function), the inventors have recognized that the interface can be adapted to each user based on a cognitive level of the user. The personalization is done not only at the main-interface level with the icons but on the sub-interface level by making the representation of the function in society that the user understands be the first to be displayed after an icon is selected.